Joe Paterno, Oscars!, and buying local

This week Joe Paterno died, the Oscar nominations were released, and a group tries to encourage local governments to buy locally.

January 27, 2012; 9:46 AM • by Ross Catrow

Sunday

Saturday night, during the VCU Rams’ beatdown of cross-state rival ODU, a Penn State-specific news site (onwardstate.com) reported that Joe Paterno had died. Quickly the information spread over twitter, but shortly thereafter (I mean really shortly) Paterno’s son quashed the rumor, say JoePa was alive and fighting.

Paterno eventually died on Sunday of, what was thought to be, a treatable form of lung cancer.

The whole thing was a fascinating, if sad, look at how quickly rumors can spread and die through social media.

• Joe Paterno, 85, dies in State College; ESPN
• An Apology from the Managing Editor of Onward State; Onward State

Tuesday

OSCAR NOMS!! If you’re like me, and UNFORTUNATELY YOU PROBABLY AREN’T, you love the poop out of movies. Watching movies is part of what the Catrow family does, so every Oscar season is like a special Bonus Christmas. It’s when people who hate sports finally can bet on something and shout at the TV.

Long live the Oscars!

• Oscar nominations

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The State of the Union happened. Here’s the whole thing, plus little helpful notes from the White House:

Thursday

Remember when the City of Richmond awarded a bid for some branding work to a company out of Denver? It was quite the kerfuffle. A new “statewide business coalition” called Local First Virginia¹ is lobbying for some legal changes to give Virginia companies preferred treatment when it comes to procurement.

• Why local first hurts Virginia; Bearing Drift

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So far we’ve weathered around twenty Republican primary debates going back to early summer 2011. After two dozen of these things the moderators are running out of questions to ask, last night’s best example: “Why do you think your wife would make the best First Lady.” Great. Thursday’s debate was Gingrich’s chance to capitalize on his victory in South Carolina, but he failed to take advantage. Here’s how @fivethirtyeight thought everyone performed:

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/#!/fivethirtyeight/status/162731508375891968”]

Florida’s primary is on Tuesday and thus far the scoreboard reads: Santorum-1, Romney-1, and Gingrich-1. For anyone other than Romney to take Florida would be a Major Upset (Intrade currently gives Romney a 91% chance of winning).

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January 27, 2012 9:46 AM 0